


Cold Feet

by BlackHatKat



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Writing Exercise, figure skating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-04 18:12:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16351628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackHatKat/pseuds/BlackHatKat
Summary: While working on a championship routine, Blake's peaceful practice time is rudely interrupted by someone she least expected to meet.





	Cold Feet

The arena was closed for the night, but she had a key; a perk of being the daughter of the president of the company who owned the facility.

Blake turned on the lights for just the ice and then went about setting up her equipment. She dragged out a bench and set up her laptop before sitting down and lacing up her skates. Pulling out her phone, she started up her program, synced it with the app, and then set off to the center of the rink to wait. After a moment, the music began and she started running through the routine she had created.

It had become something of a habit now, working this late in the evening. She found that it gave her the best time to plan and think. Usually her time was spent studying in the school library, but tonight she had to come here.

The days were crazy busy now, with Weiss training with extra intensity for the upcoming competition. 

The World Ice Championships which were held every two years in different cities across the globe was going to be in their very own city of Vale. It was a showcase of the best of the best young athletes in various ice-related sporting events. Almost all of Blake's friends were going to be competing, which was pretty much a given since her social circle was comprised of several national champions in their respective activities. Nora and Ren were the favourite to win at pairs skating this year thanks to their very unique style. Yang was the captain of the women's hockey team, and her younger sister Ruby was the top speedskater in her division.

Blake spun around, slowly picking up speed as she set up for her first jump. She landed cleanly, taking some mental notes as she continued to glide along to the music.

Weiss had picked the song, and Blake had worked with her to create the routine. There were still a few things that needed to be tweaked, and so Blake had come here to work on them alone in the peace and quiet of the empty arena.

The tournament started next week and some of the competitors had already arrived in Vale. The media was going into a frenzy with some of the famous faces including the current World Ladies Championship holder and Mistral National Champion, Cinder Fall. Weiss was obsessed with besting her which was why she had been pushing herself so hard lately. Blake wanted to help her friend achieve her dream and so she'd allowed Weiss to recruit her. It also enabled her to keep the over-dramatic white-haired girl grounded as well. A public meltdown would not look good for herself or her well-known family. 

The music reached a crescendo, which meant it was on to the more complex part, the section that Weiss always had trouble with. If she could pull this combination of moves off, she'd be sure to win, but so far she'd struggled some of the transitions. Unfortunately for her, Blake had no problem with the routine, but that was because she was a prodigy... a prodigy that was terrified of performing in front of an audience. 

Blake skated for fun, and being able to pull off all the fancier moves was a result of all the private training she had growing up with her mother, a former world champion herself. Kali had never pushed her to compete, and Blake loved her for it.

As the song came to an end, Blake began to analyze the routine in her head, trying to decide what she could modify for Weiss' capabilities. However, as she lowered her arms while catching her breath in the artificially cool air, she heard a sharp noise that distinctly sounded like clapping. Rolling her eyes, she looked up to the darkened stands where the singular applause was coming from.

"Haha, very funny Sun," Blake said to the shadow, her voice echoing throughout the otherwise empty rink. She stuck her tongue out at the figure before skating over to her laptop to check on her program. She heard the person descending the stairs with a more heavier-sounding clomping than she expected. "Shouldn't you be sleeping or something?" she asked, typing a few notes out. 

Sun Wukong always had a habit of sneaking in to watch Blake work after he had transferred to Beacon last year. It was totally obvious he had a huge crush on her, but for whatever reason he'd never actually asked her out. Blake didn't mind. He was a great guy, but he was also the current Vacuo National Mens Figure Skating Champion. Dating him would mean getting even more spotlight time which was the exact opposite of what she wanted. She'd never been interested him as much as he was in her. She was perfectly fine with them just being friends. 

"Never been much for sleep. Not even when I used to skate."

Blake froze. That smooth voice wasn't Sun's. She shot her head up to see who had been spying on her.

Leaning on the gate to the ice was a stupidly attractive silver-haired young man in a black and grey jacket. He gave her a lazy smile and a wave.

"Wha... how did you get in here?" Blake demanded angrily while trying not to blush. She knew exactly who he was. She'd seen him on television a few years ago and he'd been a very popular topic of conversation amongst her Beacon Academy classmates. He was Mercury Black, former pairs partner of Cinder Fall. Not long after their big win at the Worlds four years ago, he'd gotten in a serious accident that crippled his legs and rendered him unable to compete ever again. He'd remained involved with the sport but on a support capacity instead when Cinder switched to solo.

Mercury shrugged. "The boss asked me to check things out for her. Saw that the lights were on so I figured I'd poke around. Imagine my surprise to find you."

"Boss, huh?" Blake packed up her laptop and put the bench away. So much for having quiet time to practice alone. Now she had to deal with this nosy intruder that she may-or-may-not have had a tiny crush on when she saw him and Cinder skate at the Mistral Nationals. People were calling them the next Winter Schnee and Qrow Branwen based on the fiery intensity with which they skated. "You're working for Cinder now so you have to call her that?"

"Pft," Mercury snorted. "She pretty well called all the shots when we were skating together anyways. Wasn't that much of a change in dynamic, really." He cocked his head to the side and looked her up and down. "So Weiss Schnee's choreographer is better than she is. Kind of dangerous to be practicing such a fancy routine alone, don't you think?"

Blake's cheeks coloured at the change in topic. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You were trying to dumb down that routine for her," Mercury stated with a smug grin. "Cinder will find that very interesting." He held up his phone and wiggled it back and forth. "It was quite the performance."

"You wouldn't dare!" Blake sped over to the door, futilely grabbing over it for the phone. Even with the extra height from her skates she couldn't quite reach the device now that he held it up and back behind his head. If she lunged she'd end up falling over the boards and right into his handsome face.

"Ah ah," Mercury tutted. He smirked as he took a step backwards so that he was completely out of her range.

"Asshole," Blake muttered. She glanced down at his feet. They weren't real; in fact, his legs from the middle of his thighs down were of an experimental design by the Atlas Military. After the accident, Cinder had used her rather extensive connections to get them for him. She remembered reading the article and the interview. It was very interesting. The nano-circuitry allowed him complete natural movement so you'd never know that his legs were prosthetics at all. Curious, she looked up at him. He'd noticed her staring and was now frowning at her.

"What?" he asked, a hint of irritation in his voice.

"Just... just wondering if you can still skate, is all."

"Of course I can. Just can't do it professionally anymore," Mercury replied bitterly.

"Do you miss it?"

Mercury blinked. Her question had apparently caught him offguard.

"You seem like the type that enjoys the attention. Not quite the same being in the background, is it?" Blake asked with a smirk of her own.

"It is what it is," Mercury grumbled. "Why do you care? You obviously enjoy hiding behind your famous friend."

"I've found that it's actually the best place to be," Blake told him matter-of-factly. "I get to be involved with something I'm passionate about and am able to spend time with my friend on top of that. You get to enjoy all the glitz and glamour with none of the attention pointed your way... which lets you get away with a few fun things on the side."

"Oh really." The smirk was back. "You don't strike me as the rule-breaker type."

"You don't know me at all."

The smirk turned into a much wider grin. "Maybe I'd like to," Mercury said, his grey eyes lighting up with interest.

"You wish," Blake huffed, but her blush gave her away.

"How about this. You go on a date with me so I can actually get to know you and then I'll delete the video," Mercury offered.

"That's called blackmail."

"That's called getting what we both want, Blake." He stared at her, his arrogance growing at the same rate her face turned red. "I promise, I'll be a perfect gentleman." He smiled with his teeth, causing all the right kind of tingling to go down her spine.

"You're out of your mind," Blake told him and whirled around, not wanting him to see her reaction to him saying her name. God, he was a jerk. An attractive, probably-only-after-one-thing kind of jerk. Her heart started beating faster at the thought of going out with him. Some very uncharacteristic thoughts entered her mind and she tried to shake them out.

"Well if you're sure..." Mercury drawled from behind her. "Everyone's gonna get a real kick out of this video."

Blake closed her eyes, took a deep breath to calm herself and then turned. She saw Mercury holding up his phone again poised to hit send on it. "All right, all right," she muttered. "But I get to pick the time and place."

"Sure."

"Great. Let me get my skates off and we can go. There's an all-night sushi place around the corner." It also had one of the city's best spicy tuna rolls and she seriously needed an order of that and a pot of their green tea right now.

Mercury raised an eyebrow. "Now? My my, aren't you eager."

"Eager to wipe all evidence of myself off of your phone," Blake retorted and opened the door that had been separating them this entire time. "Wait here, I'll be right back." She stomped off towards the locker room where she had left a few more of her things and to turn off the lights.

Mercury watched her as she left. She really was fascinating, and amusingly sassy to boot. He ran a hand through his hair just as his phone vibrated. Glancing at it, he saw that Emerald had texted him, wondering where he was and if he managed to gather any intel. He quickly replied, telling her not to wait up. Emerald then sent him a picture of herself flipping him the bird and he laughed, tucking his phone back into his jacket pocket. 

Cinder had wanted him to look around the arena to get a feel for the rink. It was something she liked to do; scouting out the new place in case there was anything of note that might affect her performance. He'd snuck in the side door after discovering that someone had left it unlocked. Finding that Blake was out on the ice had been a very pleasant surprise. He'd seen her before in the media; the mysterious and pretty amber-eyed, dark-haired girl lurking on the sidelines of Weiss Schnee's performances. She was Blake Belladonna, daughter of Ghira, the president of the White Fang Company and Kali, a former Women's World Figure Skating Champion. He'd always wondered what her story was and seeing her impressive skating ability only added to his interest in her. She was the complete opposite of his usual type which, after recently breaking up with his psycho-ex Neopolitan, he'd decided was a probably a good thing.

The main lights shut off and Blake returned, her skates and laptop now tucked away in the fancy black bag over her shoulder. She'd let out her hair from the ponytail, letting it hang loose down to below her shoulders but now a black bow adorned the top of her head. Holy shit did she look even cuter this way. And even though the lights were now dimmed, he was almost positive she'd put a little bit of makeup on. It took quite a bit of effort for him not to do something that would definitely be construed as extremely inappropriate at this point in time. He definitely wanted that second date now.

"Okay, let's go and get this over with," she sighed. 

"After you," Mercury said, ushering her ahead of him so that he could maintain his cool facade plus admire the view from behind.

She rolled her eyes and lead him out to the main entrance. "You're buying," she told him flatly as she pulled out the keys and locked up the doors.

"I assumed as much."

"Good." She glanced at him and then looked away quickly, but that quick glimpse into her amber eyes told him everything he needed to know. She was totally into him too. How could she not be? 

Mercury chuckled quietly to himself as he and Blake left the arena and walked down the street towards the sushi shop. He wondered what her reaction was going to be when she found out that due to his utter shock of watching her amazing skating, there was actually no video of her on his phone after all.

\---

End

**Author's Note:**

> I actually don't ship this couple, rather, this was originally written as an OC/Mercury AU of another complex AU that my friend and I have been writing for years. (Yes that's right, an AU of an AU because we're nerds) I thought it would work as a regular RWBY AU so I edited it as an exercise. :)


End file.
